Sex Education in Public Schools

[BetteDavisEyes]

Originally Posted by Coramoor

We can't trust the public education system to teach little johnny long division or mandy US history, yet we trust these dumb ass teachers to teach them sex ed?

Yeah, right.

Well, as a "dumb ass teacher" as you so succinctly put, we do the best we can with the limited resources & training we get in this subject. Parents have the final say on what they will allow their child to hear in regards to sex ed. Many parents actually send in notes with demands as to what their child can hear from us and when we're to make them leave the room. There are a lot of dos and don'ts in this subject area. We can only tell them so much. The school I used to work at actually sent the students out to a different room where a RN (male for the boys and female for the girls) would walk them through body changes, sex, etc. Other schools have the teachers tell them the basic facts.


Unfortunately, many parents still have the attitude that sex is taboo and not to be spoken of so they refuse to sign the consent forms.

[KSUViolet06]

Yes it should be. I think there should at least be some education about male/female reproductive systems, puberty (and what it entails for both males/females), the reproductive process (sex & conception).

As far as contraceptives & abstinence, I think those things should BOTH be covered briefly as well. Students should know that sex is a choice, and that they can choose to abstain from sex. Likewise, if students choose to have sex, they need to know about how to prevent diseases & pregnancy.

*I also think that there should be an option for parents to sign something if they do not want their kids to participate, since everyone has different attitudes about sex.

[ziasha07]

Originally Posted by BetteDavisEyes

Well, as a "dumb ass teacher" as you so succinctly put, we do the best we can with the limited resources & training we get in this subject. Parents have the final say on what they will allow their child to hear in regards to sex ed. Many parents actually send in notes with demands as to what their child can hear from us and when we're to make them leave the room. There are a lot of dos and don'ts in this subject area. We can only tell them so much. The school I used to work at actually sent the students out to a different room where a RN (male for the boys and female for the girls) would walk them through body changes, sex, etc. Other schools have the teachers tell them the basic facts.


Unfortunately, many parents still have the attitude that sex is taboo and not to be spoken of so they refuse to sign the consent forms.

In my school system, the parents only sign foms if the DON'T want their children to go.

[honeychile]

I want to add to my own post, that abstinence was very much part of the program, too.

I can remember one point very vividly. Bearing in mind that we had to sit boy-girl-boy-girl, the teachers (always one male, one female) passed around a grapefruit. Then the teacher said how many of the girls complained about cramps every month, which was the result of a heavy period. He then said, "if you think having menstrual cramps are bad, think about this grapefruit. It's roughly the size of a baby's head. Think about the cramps that would go along with that!"

I should also add that I graduated with over 700 in my class. There were exactly two pregnancies in my entire class! Knowledge is power!

I apologize in advance if that's too graphic for some.

[Kevin]

I went to a Catholic school.. we had sex ed in biology. No scary stuff or anything. I'm pretty sure we had no pregnancies out of a class of around 150 or so. I always heard rumors when girls would just "disappear" that they had been sent home. I'm pretty sure they expelled pregnant students or those who had abortions.

That said, maybe we shouldn't have sex ed in schools... it ought to be left to kids to research for themselves on the internet.

There are probably volunteer teachers just waiting in chat rooms.

[OneTimeSBX]

my parents never had the "birds/bees" talk with me, and for the life of me i cant remember where i learned it from! mom did, however, explain my cycle to me in enough detail that i decided i didnt want to be a girl anymore...

by 8th grade, 3 of my classmates had children. by my graduation, 3 more of my close friends had children (one had THREE), and a handful walked across the stage pregnant. within the 2 years after graduation, all of my close friends had children, including myself at 19.

something in the sex ed curriculum isnt working. i applaud the teachers/nurses who do that for a living. i dont think its them. kids have changed, teenagers are soo hypersexed that they make me look chaste! they are having not only sex, but orgies in high school. they have had 3 and 4 partners by their sweet 16's.

there needs to be more videos and photos of EXACTLY what your stuff looks like with herpes. the bills that a baby runs up. what childbirth looks like and feels like with NO EPIDURAL. the results of an aborted child.

to quote George W...they need "shock and awe".

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by OneTimeSBX

there needs to be more videos and photos of EXACTLY what your stuff looks like with herpes. the bills that a baby runs up. what childbirth looks like and feels like with NO EPIDURAL. the results of an aborted child.

to quote George W...they need "shock and awe".

Ours was on this line - budgeting for a child while still in school, getting the baby daddy to pay support, all sorts of disease stuff, what happens inside your body when you're having sex (again, it's designed to keep the human race going, not to stop it) - much more detailed and probably more what's needed NOW than when I was in elementary/middle/high school!

[Drolefille]

Catholic school:

In grade school we had sex ed seperately from any of our other classes. Once in Fourth grade, and once later in seventh or eighth when we saw the whole giving birth video. In high school we had Health class that included sex and Anatomy covered it as well.

[BetteDavisEyes]

We had sex-ed in P.E. when I was in the 6th grade and again, a more detailed version of sex-ed when I was a freshman in high school. I remember our teacher getting into a lot of trouble because she brought in different forms of birth control for us to look at and passed around a diaphragm that turned out to be hers. Ewww...